2D floating in Orbital Robotics Lab

Matthias Maurer of the European Astronaut Centre tries out weightless motion in 2D – courtesy of a friction-free air-bearing platform – during a summer visit to ESTEC’s Orbital Robotics Laboratory. The Lab, used to test out mission scenarios involving microgravity or low-gravity environments, incorporates a 4.8 x 9 m epoxy floor smoothed to within 0.8 mm across its surface. Like an air hockey table, air-bearing platforms can glide freely across it, to simply and easily replicate the dynamics of low gravity motion in two rather than three dimensions.